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Arch-vile
For the arch-vile in Doom 3, see Arch-Vile (Doom 3). of Doom II]] '''Arch-viles' are emaciated-looking, yellowish-skinned humanoid figures with a grotesque appearance, including stigmata. They also have no flesh around their abdomens, revealing some of their ribcage. Arch-viles first appeared in Doom II. Their manual description is: One of the worst of a bad lot. You can't think of enough rotten things to say about him. He's fast, hard to kill, casts spells, and resurrects dead monsters! At least these suckers are rare. Combat characteristics Arch-viles can take a considerably high amount of damage (700 hit points, the fourth highest in the game), and their attack consists of a unique ability to immolate their enemies in flames by raising their arms up, summoning fire upon the targeted foe, regardless of range (though they will not use their attack from more than 1024 map units away unless hurt). They then hunch over and clasp their hands together, causing the fire to erupt, usually send the enemy flying into the air, while causing up to 90 points in damage. This attack will always hit the enemy as long as there is a line of sight between the arch-vile and the target, and can be avoided by getting out of the arch-vile's line of sight, which is usually relatively easy since it takes the arch-vile about three full seconds to do one attack, from when it first calls the fire to when it actually sends out the blast. However, if the player moves out of the arch-vile's line of sight and then back in by the time it finishes casting its spell, the player will be affected normally. Arch-viles are the fastest monsters in the game, almost 50% quicker than even the cyberdemon and a charging lost soul, and meeting two or more of them at once without any cover spells doom for most players-even well equipped ones. They are also the most resistant monster to pain, which makes canceling their attacks difficult; a point-blank shot with the super shotgun only disrupts their spell 55% of the time. The arch-vile has the power to resurrect other, lower-level monsters. They can revive all monsters that leave corpses except cyberdemons, spiderdemons and other arch-viles. They also cannot revive corpses that were placed on map by the level designer. This resurrecting power makes them top priority to kill in battle, to stop them from reviving monsters and forcing the player to waste precious ammo. However, the player does get credit for killing resurrected monsters, so in levels containing an arch-vile the KILLS percentage displayed at the end may exceed 100%. Being hit by an arch-vile attack will not provoke other monsters to start infighting, because arch-viles can never become targets to monsters, including other arch-viles. Unlike most other monsters, attacking an arch-vile which is attacking will cause it to change its target to whatever attacked it last. This happens in the same attack cycle. That is, shooting an arch-vile that is occupied with blasting its current target may result in an almost immediate retaliation against the attacker by the arch-vile. Arch-viles are hurt by the blast damage of their own flame attack, so it is possible for an attacking arch-vile to hurt itself or any arch-vile close to its target. There are some interesting engine quirks associated with the arch-vile's attack and abilities, such as their assisting players with jumps and creating non-clipping ghost monsters. Inspiration and development The idea and name for the arch-vile came from Sandy Petersen.http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/december03/doom/romero/index2.shtml Bobby Prince said: "The Archvile is an evil healer. Anyone getting in his way is blasted with fire and disintegrated. This includes other demons. But, after he has wrought his destruction, he then goes around and reanimates all of the demons. Because of this interesting dual personality, I decided to give him a very evil laugh as an active sound. For his death sound, I recorded a young girl saying 'why,' pitch shifted it down and mixed it with other sounds. The Archvile just doesn't understand why anyone would want to kill him as he sees himself as only doing good for his fellow demon." http://www.bpmusic.com/pdf/tricks.pdf Notes * The arch-vile is based on a model which is currently displayed in the id Software building. * A lifesize cardboard cutout of the arch-vile produced by id Software exists. Photos of it are found here and here. * MAP11 of The Plutonia Experiment, Hunted, is a maze where arch-viles are the only enemies. The same is true for MAP11 of Plutonia 2, MAP11: Arch-Violence (Plutonia 2). * The arch-vile's attack inflicts a base 20 points of damage, plus up to 70 additional points of blast damage. The blast damage against immobile targets is often around 63 or 67 points, as the center of the attack is not normally placed at the center of the target. * The cyberdemon and the spider mastermind are immune to blast damage, so it takes an arch-vile much longer to kill one of these enemies than one might expect. Data |- | |} |valign=top| |} |valign=top| |} |} #Assumes that the victim never takes blast damage from an attack on a different target. #Cannot be targeted because arch-viles attack other monsters only in retaliation, but may be accidentally hurt by blast damage. #Arch-viles can never be arch-vile targets, but may suffer accidental blast damage. Appearance statistics In the Doom games, the arch-vile is first encountered on these levels: The IWADs contain the following numbers of arch-viles per skill level: Doom RPG In Doom RPG, the arch-vile appears as a class of monster. There are three variations, identified by color: * Infernis (blue) * Archvile sic (gold) * Apollyon (red) The arch-vile class of monsters are particularly susceptible to axe attacks and also appear to share a similar weakness to the fire extinguisher that lost soul-class monsters do, much the same as in the novelisation of Hell on Earth. They also possess the ability to revive dead monsters, though this will fail if the player is standing on its target's corpse at the time. See also *Arch-vile attack targets not preserved in saved games *Arch-vile jump *Ghost monster *Models *Monsters open locked doors